Sam Biddle

As the internet shit its collective denim pants yesterday upon news of Snapchat's Facebook refusal, there were some outliers—very prominent outliers. You might think two 23-year-olds refusing three billion dollars is lunacy, but these tech insiders think you're the crazy one.

What do all these startup Panglosses have in common? With very few exceptions, they're investors, whose meaning on this planet is justified only if turning down $3 billion with the hopes of more billions is considered rational. If greed on this scale isn't bonkers, but a virtue, then the whole thing keeps lurching forward without pausing to reflect on why a company that makes nothing is worth anything at all.